Ben Smith is up with a statement from the Law School. I didn't realize that they'd invited Obama to become a full-time, tenured track prof several times.

With Bush having shredded the Constit six ways from Sunday, it is good news that the Democrats will have a nominee, a Con Law prof ready from Day 1 so to speak

This has been confirmed in a statement by the University of Chicago today. God know where I saw it, or I'd link it. I'll try to find it.

Clinton lies again. "Details matter?" Man, she has guts, she really does.

For those of you who missed all the fun earlier, here's the entire statement from the University of Chicago School of Law:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/03/university-of-chicago-law-scho.php

plus some other general jackassery...

They offered him tenure track several times, and a major university does not do that to anyone, especially if that person has previously declined such an offer. Obviously, you can't have two careers at the same time, so it was either full-time politics or full-time teaching. In his situation, Senior Lectureship is his choice, while the department's desire was obviously to have him on tenure track.

RE: A discussion of "character attacks" that took place in another recent thread:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/03/clintons-toughness.php

This is the difference between calling out Clinton on her Bosnia lie, which some are labeling as a "character attack" on the part of Obama, and a real character attack.

Dammitt He is a professor he is a professor he is a professor!

What a wimp

Here's the link:

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/28/832174.aspx

The funny thing is, even after they were proven wrong about this, and it was a very publicly made charge, the Clinton team did not apologize to Obama. I would think out of normal courtesy if you publicly charge someone with impersonating a professor and it turns out he is fact a professor, you would apologize. But I forget: only people with a modicum of class do that.

The minuscule meaning of "minute" -- as in "so small as to avoid detection in most instances" -- does indeed characterize such "thinking" as You-Know-Her chooses to indulge. Yes, she does have an impressive short-term memory for factoid "details" relating to, let us say, Healthcare. Unfortunately, when attempting to secretly combine with mega-insurance companies to implement the "details" of an actual program, she bungles so badly as to disgust the county and lose Democrats control of the House and Senate for twelve years.

So, yes, details do matter -- when determining what important project the Democrats don't really care if she blows, big-time, for the Party and America. Nonetheless, she really does want an undeserved, Peter-Principle promotion to even higher levels of incompetence. Really. She does. She wants it badly. And we must reward her, she says, for ... well ... whatever. She demands it. Because every woman who joins a company has an automatic claim to the CEO's job. I mean, every woman just knows that. Men (like Senator Obama) just don't get that "entitlement" thing.

Voters in Iowa rated You-Know-Her's claim of "entitlement" worthy of a third place finish. Just a minor "detail," true, but one that essentially nailed the "loser" tag securely and prominently to You-Know-Her's entitled, sloping, detail-obsessed forehead. The "dots" she knows. She simply has shown no demonstrated ability to connect them into anything truly meaningful.

I was a part-time community college instructor for a few years. "Teaching" and "college" automatically made me a "professor" to all my students and relatives and anybody who doesn't speak Academese. Obama's use of common terminology rather than precise jargon was not something that most people see as a big deal. Clinton calling him on it, using jargon to define the difference and acting like it was a big deal, that just comes across as desperate. Not as desperate as running across a tarmac in a flak jacket under sniper fire, but desperate.

Yes, he is a law professor. Want to know how I know? Because I HAD HIM IN LAW SCHOOL!

OK, Hillary nuts, this is how it works. At the U. of Chicago, you have professors (visiting and faculty), Bigalow instructors, adjunct professors, clinical professors and lecturers.

Professors are easy: tenure track, either at UC or somewhere else.

Bigalows are the first year writing and research instructors. They are usually people coming off a judicial clerkship or out of practice. My Bigalow was formerly a NYC litigator with Debevoise and Plimpton, old brown shoe Wall Street firm. He left UC and went to tenure track elsewhere.

Adjucts are practicing attorneys who teach very narrow, esoteric subjects, like advanced intellectual property.

Clinical: they teach litigation in the legal aid clinic and staff cases for indigent criminal defense or civil litigation. I did a death penalty appeal and a criminal case (we got a poor Black man off on a robbery he did not commit, then he committed ten rapes of poor Black women in his neighborhood . . . discuss amongst yourselves).

The there are the lecturers. Obama, being a sitting state senator and attorney obviously was not looking for a tenure track position. So he was in the lecturer slot . . . along with Judge Richard Posner and Frank Estabrook [sic?] of the 7th Circuit. My old proff Diane Wood, a Clinton appointee to the 7th Circuit, is also a lecturer, I believe.

Hillbots, you want to go explain to Dick Posner that he is not a "real professor"? You people are proving more and more that denial is not just a river in Egypt.

Look, I've always believed Obama when he said he was a professor.

All I want to know is....Can he get us of this damn island or what?

Love,
Ginger

This is "Clintonian Strate-gery" at its finest. They damn well know the difference. The so called latte/wine crowd knows the difference. This intentional misrepresentation is directed at her base supporters that somehow still believe she is telling the truth.

Underhanded politics I can appreciate but this is just tacky and cheap. She has learned the lessons of the right wing conspiracy well but I fear the hour is getting late for her campaign. It smells of desperation.

Well, I guess he didn't misspeak that time. Just others:

Obama claimed credit for nuclear leak legislation that never passed. "Obama scolded Exelon and federal regulators for inaction and introduced a bill to require all plant owners to notify state and local authorities immediately of even small leaks. He has boasted of it on the campaign trail, telling a crowd in Iowa in December that it was 'the only nuclear legislation that I’ve passed.' 'I just did that last year,' he said, to murmurs of approval. A close look at the path his legislation took tells a very different story. While he initially fought to advance his bill, even holding up a presidential nomination to try to force a hearing on it, Mr. Obama eventually rewrote it to reflect changes sought by Senate Republicans, Exelon and nuclear regulators. The new bill removed language mandating prompt reporting and simply offered guidance to regulators, whom it charged with addressing the issue of unreported leaks. Those revisions propelled the bill through a crucial committee. But, contrary to Mr. Obama’s comments in Iowa, it ultimately died amid parliamentary wrangling in the full Senate." [New York Times, 2/2/08]

Obama misspoke about his being conceived because of Selma. "Mr. Obama relayed a story of how his Kenyan father and his Kansan mother fell in love because of the tumult of Selma, but he was born in 1961, four years before the confrontation at Selma took place. When asked later, Mr. Obama clarified himself, saying: 'I meant the whole civil rights movement.'" [New York Times, 3/5/07]

LA Times: Fellow organizers say Sen. Obama took too much credit for his community organizing efforts. "As the 24-year-old mentor to public housing residents, Obama says he initiated and led efforts that thrust Altgeld's asbestos problem into the headlines, pushing city officials to call hearings and a reluctant housing authority to start a cleanup. But others tell the story much differently. They say Obama did not play the singular role in the asbestos episode that he portrays in the best-selling memoir 'Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.' Credit for pushing officials to deal with the cancer-causing substance, according to interviews and news accounts from that period, also goes to a well-known preexisting group at Altgeld Gardens and to a local newspaper called the Chicago Reporter. Obama does not mention either one in his book." [Los Angeles Times, 2/19/07]

Chicago Tribune: Obama's assertion that nobody had indications Rezko was engaging in wrongdoing 'strains credulity.' "…Obama has been too self-exculpatory. His assertion in network TV interviews last week that nobody had indications Rezko was engaging in wrongdoing strains credulity: Tribune stories linked Rezko to questionable fundraising for Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2004 -- more than a year before the adjacent home and property purchases by the Obamas and the Rezkos." [Chicago Tribune editorial, 1/27/08]

Obama was forced to revise his assertion that lobbyists 'won't work in my White House.' "White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was forced to revise a critical stump line of his on Saturday -- a flat declaration that lobbyists 'won't work in my White House' after it turned out his own written plan says they could, with some restrictions… After being challenged on the accuracy of what he has been saying -- in contrast to his written pledge -- at a news conference Saturday in Waterloo, Obama immediately softened what had been his hard line in his next stump speech." [Chicago Sun-Times, 12/16/07]

FactCheck.org: 'Selective, embellished and out-of-context quotes from newspapers pump up Obama's health plan.' "Obama's ad touting his health care plan quotes phrases from newspaper articles and an editorial, but makes them sound more laudatory and authoritative than they actually are. It attributes to The Washington Post a line saying Obama's plan would save families about $2,500. But the Post was citing the estimate of the Obama campaign and didn't analyze the purported savings independently. It claims that "experts" say Obama's plan is "the best." "Experts" turn out to be editorial writers at the Iowa City Press-Citizen – who, for all their talents, aren't actual experts in the field. It quotes yet another newspaper saying Obama's plan "guarantees coverage for all Americans," neglecting to mention that, as the article makes clear, it's only Clinton's and Edwards' plans that would require coverage for everyone, while Obama's would allow individuals to buy in if they wanted to.” [FactCheck.org, 1/3/08]

Sen. Obama said 'I passed a law that put Illinois on a path to universal coverage,' but Obama health care legislation merely set up a task force. "As a state senator, I brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass legislation insuring 20,000 more children. And 65,000 more adults received health care…And I passed a law that put Illinois on a path to universal coverage." The State Journal-Register reported in 2004 that "The [Illinois State] Senate squeaked out a controversial bill along party lines Wednesday to create a task force to study health-care reform in Illinois. […] In its original form, the bill required the state to offer universal health care by 2007. That put a 'cloud' over the legislation, said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon. Under the latest version, the 29-member task force would hold at least five public hearings next year." [Obama Health Care speech, 5/29/07; State Journal-Register, 5/20/04]

ABC News: 'Obama…seemed to exaggerate the legislative progress he made' on ethics reform. "ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: During Monday's Democratic presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., seemed to exaggerate the legislative progress he has made on disclosure of "bundlers," those individuals who aggregate their influence with the candidate they support by collecting $2,300 checks from a wide network of wealthy friends and associates. When former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel alleged that Obama had 134 bundlers, Obama responded by telling Gravel that the reason he knows how many bundlers he has raising money for him is "because I helped push through a law this past session to disclose that." Earlier this year, Obama sponsored an amendment [sic] in the Senate requiring lobbyists to disclose the candidates for whom they bundle. Obama's amendment would not, however, require candidates to release the names of their bundlers. What's more, although Obama's amendment was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent, the measure never became law as Obama seemed to suggest. Gravel and the rest of the public know how many bundlers Obama has not because of a 'law' that the Illinois Democrat has 'pushed through' but because Obama voluntarily discloses that information." [ABC News, a=href"http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/07/obama-exaggerat.html">7/23/07]

Obama drastically overstated Kansas tornado deaths during campaign appearance. "When Sen. Barack Obama exaggerated the death toll of the tornado in Greensburg, Kan, during his visit to Richmond yesterday, The Associated Press headline rapidly evolved from 'Obama visits former Confederate capital for fundraiser’ to ‘Obama rips Bush on Iraq war at Richmond fundraiser' to 'Weary Obama criticizes Bush on Iraq, drastically overstates Kansas tornado death toll' to 'Obama drastically overstates Kansas tornado deaths during campaign appearance.' Drudge made it a banner, ensuring no reporter would miss it." [politico.com, 5/9/07]

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/profile/Jim%20Sleeper

Jim Sleeper
Biography: Jim Sleeper, a lecturer in political science at Yale and a writer on American civic culture and

I taught law as an adjunct at a state university, and in each of my classes, I was called by the university "Professor" and told that I should insist students call me that.

Besides, it's all subjective anyway.

It's not like he called himself "Man Who Flew Into Bosnia Avoiding Sniper Fire" or some other irrefutable, objective fact. . .

Well, it took about 30 seconds via Google to find the hypocrisy of the Clinton campaign. Let's see how they define professor in context.

From a HRC press release:

A complete list of the 225 Educators for Hillary follows:

snip

Patricia Blumenthal, Chester
Professor, Chester College

So, who is this, upper-case P, professor?

See the faculty list at Chester College:

Patricia Blumenthal Lecturer I in Psychology BA, Clark University MS, Antioch New England Graduate School Psy.D., Antioch New England Graduate School

Oh my... a Lecturer I at the prestigious Chester College of New England? No, no, no... Professor Blumenthal!

Words matter, or just words?